Dynamics of liquid silica as explained by properties of the potential energy landscape

TL;DR

This paper explains silica's strong glass-former behavior through potential energy landscape analysis, linking thermodynamics and local relaxation processes to understand its long-range transport mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using potential energy landscape concepts to connect silica's thermodynamics and local bond dynamics with its macroscopic transport properties.

Findings

Silica exhibits Arrhenius temperature dependence.

Local relaxation involves correlated bond breaking and reforming.

Potential energy landscape analysis provides fundamental insights.

Abstract

The dynamics of silica displays an Arrhenius temperature dependence, classifying silica as a strong glass-former. Using recently developed concepts to analyse the potential energy landscape one can get a fundamental understanding of the long-range transport of silica. It can be expressed in terms of properties of the thermodynamics as well as local relaxation processes, thereby extending the phenomenological standard picture of a strong glass-former. The local relaxation processes are characterized by complex correlated sequences of bond breaking and reformation processes.